From Lakes Entrance to Paris: Paramedic supports his daughter’s Olympic dream

July 24, 2024 | in News

As the 2024 Olympic Games take place in Paris from 26 July to 11 August, we’re featuring some of Ambulance Victoria’s (AV) very own sporting stars.

One person who will be in Paris for the Olympic Games is AV’s East Gippsland Senior Team Manager Dave Jones, who will be supporting his daughter in her second Games appearance for Australia in Olympic Skeet.

Aislin Jones, now 24, is the youngest athlete to have ever shot at Olympic level for Australia having made her Olympic debut at Rio at 16 years of age.

Now, she has made her second Olympic team and will compete in the women’s and mixed teams’ skeet events in Paris.

Dave, who has worked at AV for 25 years, said he was the one to introduce his daughter to sport shooting.

“I started shooting recreationally after we moved to Lakes Entrance, shooting a different discipline altogether to skeet,” he explained.

“My wife was a nurse and did opposite shifts to me so to manage childcare, the kids would follow me round at the gun club.

“When Aislin was old enough, we offered her a go and she’s never looked back.”

Dave took on the role of Aislin’s coach, which he continues today alongside her coaching team, and said she dreamt of being an Olympian from an early age.

“When she was 12, she watched a lot of the London Olympics and pretty much decided at that point that she wanted to go,” Dave said.

“That isn’t unusual for kids that age – what is unusual is that she pulled it off.

“I always said to her that when she was older, if she was still shooting, we’d organise some other coaching for her.

“Back then, there was a way you could send messages directly to your favourite Olympic athletes and we sent a message to skeet shooter Lauryn Mark.

“She actually replied, which blew me away and later that year, the two met up and they’ve been working together ever since.”

Over the years, Dave has balanced his work as a paramedic with the demands of Aislin’s schedule, including training, travelling and competing, which he said has been challenging.

But he said the positives of his role as a Senior Team Manager at AV and as a coach for his daughter overlap.

“I get a lot of the same satisfaction out of coaching her and watching her success in sport, as I do out of watching people succeed in my teams at AV,” Dave said.

“There’s a lot of satisfaction to be had out of helping somebody else to succeed beyond anything they thought they were capable of and even what you yourself might be capable of.

“And talent development, recruitment, performance psychology – with all of those things, there’s a lot of crossover between coaching athletes and anyone else, so they’re all useful at AV.”

Aislin will compete over the first weekend of August at the Paris Olympics, with Dave cheering her on from the stands.

“She’s never going to leave anything on the field, she applies herself to whatever she does,” Dave said.

“She works nearly full time and she’s studying a Bachelor of Commerce, she’s training to run a marathon after the Olympics – she doesn’t do anything by half measures.

“I’m very proud of her and I just hope she has a really good time and enjoys it – if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, it’s time to stop.”

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